1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the communications field and, in particular, to a system, intelligent network service engine and method capable of performing real time fraud analysis on an originating side of a call stream to determine whether or not a call is a fraudulent call before the call is connected to a called party.
2. Description of Related Art
Telecommunications fraud is an ever-increasing problem that can be very expensive to communication companies and their customers. Telecommunications fraud can occur in wireline networks, wireless network and Internet networks. For instance, one of the most common telephone fraud schemes occurs when a calling card is stolen, duplicated and distributed to many users. These users then use the stolen calling card to make fraudulent calls. The network operator servicing the calling card eventually becomes aware that the calling card has been stolen and refuses to approve the termination of any calls associated with the stolen calling card. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the costs associated with servicing and terminating all of these fraudulent calls can be very expensive.
Today, telecommunications fraud is typically detected after completion of a fraudulent call by processing network management post event statistics or CDR's (Call Detail Records (billing records)). Generally, the traditional post event fraud processing of a call is done by sending information about the terminated call to a fraud management system which can detect fraudulent attributes and inform an operator about a fraudulent number (or stolen, misused, threatened account) who then manually turns that fraudulent number off at an intelligent network service engine (e.g., service control point, home location register). This process can take 1-48 hours to complete after the termination of the first fraudulent call. Post processing (even very quickly) of call is still performed after a call is terminated which is not desirable since a first fraudulent call can be by itself very expensive. Accordingly, there has been a need for a system, intelligent network service engine and method capable of performing real time fraud analysis on an originating side of a call stream to determine whether or not a call is a fraudulent call before the call is connected to a called party. This need and other needs are satisfied by the system, intelligent network service engine and method of the present invention.